1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to preventing fraudulent access to a telecommunications system. The invention relates to analyzing fraudulent calling patterns and using such analysis to implement steps to prevent such fraud.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fraud costs the telecommunications industry billions of dollars per year. There are many techniques used to perpetrate fraud. The fraud can be as simple as using a stolen credit card to charge a long distance call, or it can involve sophisticated looping techniques, such as repeatedly calling a private PBX system, finding the correct sequence to access an outside line (by trial and error or other hacking techniques) and then placing a costly long distance call through the PBX system. The telecommunications industry is involved in an intensive and ongoing effort to identify different types of fraud and then to develop and implement ways of preventing such fraud.
Fraud is more costly to certain telecommunications companies than others. For example, where a fraudulent call is directed at a company that owns the underlying telecommunications infrastructure, the cost of the call is less than the cost to an independent company that incurs access charges to the owner(s) of the infrastructure supporting the call, even if the call is fraudulent. In either case, however, the cost to the industry is significant.
Particular methods of fraud control and systems for implementing them are known in the industry. Fraud control may be divided conceptually into identifying a call that is likely to be fraudulent and responding after a call is identified as likely to be fraudulent.
Methods of identifying calls that are likely to be fraudulent vary from the simple to the sophisticated and are generally directed at a particular type of fraudulent activity. For example, a call is likely to be fraudulent if it is made using a calling card that has been reported stolen by the owner. A more sophisticated method of identifying fraudulent calls is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,354, entitled xe2x80x9cFraud Evaluation and Reporting System and Method Thereofxe2x80x9d, which is owned by the assignee of the present invention (xe2x80x9cthe ""354 patentxe2x80x9d). Fraudulent activity is identified in the ""354 patent by monitoring the activity of a billing number, such as a calling card number or a credit card number. If certain patterns of calling are detected, an alert is generated. The alert can be analyzed and a decision may be made to block subsequent calls made using the billing number. U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,354 is hereby incorporated by reference.
Once a fraud alert is generated, various responses may be taken. One typical reaction is to transfer the underlying calling data that generates the alert to a fraud analyst. The fraud analyst may determine what response is appropriate based on a review of the calling data received alone, or may decide to access additional information to determine the appropriate response. The fraud analyst""s response will depend on what generated the alert.
For example, if an alert has been generated for a certain calling card (billing number) because it is used for more than a threshold number of calls within a certain period of time, then the data for the calls is transferred to the fraud analyst. This would include the originating and terminating telephone numbers (also known as originating automatic number indicators (or originating ANIs) and terminating automatic number indicators (or terminating ANIs)) and an indicia of time of the calls. The analyst may make a determination based on this underlying data that the calls are fraudulent and that further special services calls that use that billing number should be blocked.
As noted, the telecommunications industry is involved in an intensive and ongoing effort to identify different types of fraud and then to develop and implement ways of preventing such fraud. Thus, the above described system and method for generating a fraud alert based on use of a billing number and then blocking the billing number is one way among many that fraud may be detected and prevented by a particular telecommunications company and the industry at large.
A difficulty arises in that there is a finite amount of resources that any company may devote to fraud detection and prevention. It is therefore desirable to identify trends and financial impact of frauds, so that resources can be applied where they are needed. Since techniques of fraud are always changing, it is also desirable to have a way to rapidly evaluate such trends and impacts.
Calling records of a company are available to be reviewed and compared with prior weeks, (or other intervals) in order to try to detect increases in fraudulent activity. This, however, requires that the evaluator be able to perceive trends from the raw data itself, often an impossible task.
For example, in the course of one month, fraudulent calls using calling cards from the U.S. to China may decrease by 10%. This may be attributable to the focusing of resources on preventing such fraudulent calls from the U.S. to China. However, as a result, there may be an increase in fraudulent calls within the U.S. to private PBX systems, and then from the fraudulently accessed PBX systems to China directly (that is, without using a calling card). Trying to detect such a trend by relying on raw calling records, however, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even if international calls from the United States to China were culled out of the raw data and the evaluator could somehow discern an increase in fraudulent calling to China using direct dialing (i.e., placing xe2x80x9cdial 1xe2x80x9d calls using the fraudulently accessed PBX systems), such an evaluation process is ad hoc and time consuming. In addition, if the fraudulent calls were made to PBX systems in a host of different countries, which were then used as platforms to call China, for example, the trend of calling through a PBX may riot be detected at all.
Since there is a finite level of resources that a telecommunications company can devote to fraud detection and prevention, it is desirable that it be apportioned in the most efficient way possible. In particular, it is desirable that the money saved by fraud detection and prevention efforts be maximized in relation to the amount of resources devoted to the effort.
Thus, it is an objective of the invention to provide a system and technique for organizing raw calling data into a format that can be presented to an evaluator in a manner that can be used by the evaluator to detect increases, decreases, reapportioning and other trends in fraudulent activity. It is also an objective to provide a system and technique that allows the evaluator to further refine the selection of raw calling data used in the display and presentation in order to hone in on a trend in fraudulent calling activity. Finally, it is an objective to provide a system and technique that uses the identification of trends in fraudulent activity to enable fraud detection and prevention resources to be applied where they are needed and in a manner that will maximize the reduction in fraud costs to the company.
In accordance with these objectives, the invention provides a system for evaluating losses incurred by fraud. The system is comprised of at least one processor or computer, as well as memory and supporting software. The system receives and stores calling data that relate to various revenue sources over a prior period of time, thus allowing data pertaining to the revenue sources to be generated and displayed by the system. The calling data for each revenue source may be further organized such that streams of revenue of successive levels of detail for the revenue source may be generated and displayed by the system. The calling records include data fields that permit calculation and display of revenue generated and losses incurred by fraud for different sources and levels of revenue streams for the period of time.
The system allows the fraud loss data for a particular revenue source and/or a particular level of revenue stream to be displayed together with the revenue generated for the revenue source or stream over the prior period of time. It also allows other displays to be generated, such as the percentage of fraud loss for the revenue source or the level of revenue stream.
The display allows the user to select between revenue sources and, once a revenue source is selected, to choose and display streams of revenue of successive levels for the revenue source. This allows the user to track a fraud trend that may be perceived to a more definite and focused source.
Thus, the invention generally comprises a system for analyzing fraud in a telecommunications system, where the system comprises at least one processor, software and calling records stored in a database. The at least one processor has input that receives a user selection of a revenue source and one or more streams of revenue that contribute to the revenue source. The system retrieves and processes the calling records pertaining to the selected revenue source or stream of revenue. The system then generates at least one graphical display pertaining to the revenue generated and losses due to fraud for the selected revenue source or stream of revenue.
The invention also includes a method for analyzing fraud in a telecommunications system. A user is presented with graphic data pertaining to fraud and revenue for a revenue source. The user is then presented with a selection of one or more streams of revenue of an nth level for the revenue source, where n is greater than or equal to one. The user provides a selection for one of the one or more streams of revenue of the nth level. Graphic data is then generated pertaining to fraud and revenue for the selected stream of revenue of the nth level.
Thus, the invention generally comprises a method for analyzing fraud in a telecommunications system that presents a user with graphic data pertaining to fraud and revenue for a revenue source. The user is then presented with a selection of one or more streams of revenue of an nth level that contribute to the revenue source, where n is greater than or equal to one. The user provides a selection for one of the one or more nth level streams of revenue. Graphic data is then generated pertaining to fraud and revenue for the selected nth level stream of revenue. Each first (n=1) level stream of revenue contributes a distinctly defined portion of revenue to the revenue source and each nth level stream of revenue where nxe2x89xa72 contributes a distinctly defined portion of revenue to an (nxe2x88x921)th level stream of revenue